The Dark Tetrad: Identifying personality profiles in high-school students

Psychopathic, narcissistic, Machiavellian, and sadistic traits constitute the Dark Tetrad of personality traits. While this construct has received increasing attention, to our knowledge, there is no typological study aiming to identify homogeneous groups of high-school students based on these traits. The aim of this study was (a) to identify a typology of high-school students based on the Dark Tetrad traits in a community sample and (b) to examine whether these profiles differ on psychopathological variables known to be associated with personality traits. Participants were 615 high-school students who completed self-report questionnaires. Psychopathic, narcissistic, Machiavellian, and sadistic traits were moderately correlated suggesting they may be overlapping but distinct constructs. Cluster analysis yielded four groups: a Low Traits group, a Sadistic–Machiavellian group, a Psychopathic–Narcissistic group, and a high traits group called the Dark Tetrad cluster which was high on all traits. The Dark Tetrad cluster constituted 15% of the total sample and was characterized by the highest levels of antisocial behaviors and suicidal ideations. This study suggests that a significant minority of non-clinical high-school students is characterized by the presence of high levels of the Dark Tetrad traits and self and other-aggression.     

The association of Big Five personality traits and religiosity on Internet addiction among Israeli-Palestinian Muslim college students in Israel

ABSTRACT

Prior studies have demonstrated that personality traits and religiosity may be protective/risk factors for the development of Internet addiction; however, these associations have not been examined among the unique population of Israeli-Palestinian young adults. This study was the first to investigate the relationships between Internet addiction (Internet Addiction Test; IAT) with the Big Five personality traits (Big Five Personality Trait Short Questionnaire; BFPTSQ) and religiosity (Positions Regarding Religion Questionnaire) among a sample of Israeli-Palestinian Muslim college students (n?=?350). IAT scores were positively associated with BFPTSQ openness (r?=?.33, p?<?.01), BFPTSQ extraversion (r?=?.30, p?<?.01), and BFPTSQ agreeableness (r?=?.36, p?<?.01), whereas IAT scores were negatively related to religiosity (r?=??.46, p?<?.01), BFPTSQ conscientiousness (r?=??.33, p?<?.01), and BFPTSQ emotional stability (r?=??.36, p?<?.01). The present work may provide insight into risk factors for developing Internet addiction in a manner that may increase early identification and intervention efforts.     

Some philosophical concerns about how the VIA classifies character traits and the VIA-IS measures them

ABSTRACT

Written from the perspective of a philosopher, this paper raises a number of potential concerns with how the VIA classifies and the VIA-IS measures character traits. With respect to the 24 character strengths, concerns are raised about missing strengths, the lack of vices, conflicting character strengths, the unclear connection between character strengths and virtues, and the misclassification of some character strengths under certain virtues. With respect to the 6 virtues, concerns are raised about conflicting virtues, the absence of practical wisdom, and factor analyses that do not find a 6 factor structure. With respect to the VIA-IS, concerns are raised about its neglect of motivation and about the underlying assumptions it makes about character traits. The paper ends by sketching a significantly improved classification which omits the 6 virtues and introduces additional strengths, vices, and a conflict resolution trait.     

Targeting Item-level Nuances Leads to Small but Robust Improvements in Personality Prediction from Digital Footprints

In the past decade, researchers have demonstrated that personality can be accurately predicted from digital footprint data, including Facebook likes, tweets, blog posts, pictures, and transaction records. Such computer-based predictions from digital footprints can complement—and in some circumstances even replace—traditional self-report measures, which suffer from well-known response biases and are difficult to scale. However, these previous studies have focused on the prediction of aggregate trait scores (i.e. a person's extroversion score), which may obscure prediction-relevant information at theoretical levels of the personality hierarchy beneath the Big 5 traits. Specifically, new research has demonstrated that personality may be better represented by so-called personality nuances—item-level representations of personality—and that utilizing these nuances can improve predictive performance. The present work examines the hypothesis that personality predictions from digital footprint data can be improved by first predicting personality nuances and subsequently aggregating to scores, rather than predicting trait scores outright. To examine this hypothesis, we employed least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression and random forest models to predict both items and traits using out-of-sample cross-validation. In nine out of 10 cases across the two modelling approaches, nuance-based models improved the prediction of personality over the trait-based approaches to a small, but meaningful degree (4.25% or 1.69% on average, depending on method). Implications for personality prediction and personality nuances are discussed. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology     

A model for personality at three levels

People differ. How and why they differ are the fundamental questions for personality psychologists. In this article we address three levels at which people differ: within individuals, between individuals, and between groups of individuals. A dynamic model of personality is considered where traits are seen as rates of change in states in response to environmental cues. Within individuals, motivational and behavioral states show inertial properties and lead to an analysis of rates of change and latencies of behavior. Between individuals, the analysis is one of frequency and duration of choices. When individuals self select into groups reflecting shared interests and abilities, the structure of these group differences reflects the consequences of the self selection. Examples of the dynamic model are given for each level of analysis.     

Omission bias and perceived intention in children and adults

Omission bias refers to the tendency to judge acts of commission as morally worse than equivalent acts of omission. Children aged 7–8 and 11–12 years, as well as adults, made moral judgements about acts of commission and omission in two conditions in which the protagonist obtained a self‐directed benefit. In the antisocial condition, the other person was harmed; in the selfish condition, the other person was not harmed. The results showed that adults and both age groups of children judged that the agent who did something (act of commission) was morally worse than the agent who did nothing (omission) for both antisocial and selfish conditions, although this judgement tendency was clearer in the selfish condition than in the antisocial condition. Agent intention was held constant across commission and omission, but most participants rated the intention of the agent who did something as stronger than that of the agent who did nothing. These results suggest that omission bias occurs regardless of differences in age and situation. In addition, perceived intention appears to change in conjunction with omission bias.     

The relationship between personality traits and psychotic like experiences in a large non-clinical adolescent sample

ObjectiveThe relationship between personality and psychosis is well established. It has been suggested that this relationship may be partly accounted for by higher levels of depression in individuals with certain personality traits. We explored whether the link between personality and psychotic symptoms is already apparent in adolescence, and if this association would still hold when depression was controlled for.Method654 secondary school students were surveyed via self-report questionnaires measuring the Five-Factor model of personality (NEO-FFI), depression (CES-D) and psychotic-like experiences (CAPE).ResultsPositive associations were found between Neuroticism and all CAPE-subscales except Magical Thinking, which was in turn associated with all other personality traits when at high levels. Agreeableness was negatively associated with all CAPE-subscales, while Openness to Experience was only positively associated with Persecutory Ideas and Magical Thinking. After controlling for depression, many of the significant associations remained.ConclusionOur findings suggest that the chance of having psychotic like experiences is more likely for adolescents with certain personality traits. These associations are not fully explained by depression, especially when psychotic experiences are at higher levels. Future research is needed to investigate if these personality traits might put a person at risk for the development of full-blown psychosis.     

女性人格特征的服装服饰刻板印象研究

采用服装服饰偏好语义区分量表对与女性人格特征相关联的服装服饰刻板印象进行了研究。实验由１０７名男女大学生，针对给定的刺激人物的四种不同人格特征，在服装服饰量表上作出印象判断。结果证实，存在与不同人格特点相关联的服装服饰刻板印象，并揭示出在四种人格特征的服装服饰刻板印象中，所存在的具体的服饰符号特征。实验还发现，服装服饰刻板印象中存在着性别差异。作为知觉者的女性对女性刺激人物的印象较作为知觉者的男性表现出极端化的特点。